Hey guys,

Dan here sending out the first of our monthly newsletters.

Thanks to everyone who showed up Monday night to our session, it was
great to see so many new faces (as well as some regular ones!). There
was a lot of news yesterday so I thought I'd send out this newsletter
to let you know what we've got planned for the future.

1) The runners. At the moment, as of last night me and Mark will be
running the group, with Vicky as secretary/treasurer. But don't let
that stop you from helping out! If you have any ideas for a session,
or simply want to take some time at the start of a meeting to read a
piece of work out and get feedback then let us know.

2) Subs. Subs at each meeting are £1, this money will go into a
Scribes bank account and will be used to fund the publication of the
anthology (more on this in a moment).

3)Anthology. We are looking to publish an anthology in February 08.
There's a facebook group all about this and details are there. For
those who don't have facebook, It is to be called 'Scribes Anthology'.
The material is to be selected for the beginning of February, then
selected, page set and published in time for the Alt Fiction goodie
bags. Open material, i.e. any subject/style. Word limit to be 2000
words for Short Stories & extracts and 40 lines for poetry. Selection
meeting to be held in February. Entry into the anthology is to be open
to anyone who has attended scribes meetings. The initial print run is
to be 300 copies. Cover artwork can be from public domain art.
Biographies inside to be in 3rd person for all selected writers.
Contact details may be included if the author wished. Anthology launch
party, venue/time to be discussed further. Printing will require a 2
week lead time. Entries to be in .RTF or .DOC formats.
Proof reading of entries to be limited to spelling and basic punctuation.
All first drafts to be completed by January 7th (first Scribes meet in
Jan) So they can be edited and polished by Feb 1st.

A full copy of the Anthology rules will be sent to everyone asap.

4)Meetings. The next meeting will be taking place on November 19th and
will be a lead in to the Anthology. Mark will be running the session
on 'inspiration' and will have some exercises! So bring along writing
stuff! He's told me what he has planned and it sounds good fun.

Here's a rough draft of what the next months meetings will be:

November 19th - Inspiration run by Mark
Dec 3rd - Snowflake method by Vicky
Dec 17th - Story development by Dan

Mark will text those of you with mobile numbers on the day of the
meetings to let you know finer details.

5) Writers Retreat. We have a writers retreat planned for 23rd - 25th
of November. There is one place left on a first come first serve
basis. The cost for the weekend will be £75 and will include various
sessions including a guest author (Mark Newton, who has also got
experience in publishing). Accomodation and food is included in the
costs. However, alcohol and any meals outside the residence will not
be included in the price. If you would like to come along then let us
know asap as there is only the one place left!

Cilente is organising the retreat, so if you have any questions then
please e-mail her at:

c.bosman@...
cilente@...

6) Contacts. Derbyscribes can be contacting in many different ways,
all of which are regularly checked by us lot.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=705951111&ref=mf
Yahoo Groups: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/derbyscribes/
Googlemail: Derbyscribes@...

7) Constructive Criticism. If you have anything you've written and you
want any of us to take a look at it and give you feedback then feel
free to e-mail it to us! We'd love to read anything you've written to
to help you out any way we can. Likewise if you are unsure about
aspects of storytelling or characterisation then let us know and we'll
see if we can find an answer for you!

Once again, thanks for coming down last night, and hope to see you all
again soon!

Dan
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